I normally don’t review EP’s, but this Alternative/Rock bands totally self produced 8 track EP really caught my ear. I popped it into my Cd player while sitting at home, and looking for something in my pile of Cd’s to inspire me to write a review. What impressed me at first was I didn’t realize it was an EP until I popped it in. The packaging was very professional, and had the feel of an Indie Label released CD. As it came up on my I-tunes, it loaded with the band’s name, and all the songs titles, a refreshing change of pace, from me usually having to input all that information myself. Excitement started to build as I thought maybe there would be lyrics too. Before I heard a note, and from what I read from their My Space page, and there was! I am a lyric girl, like many girls are. Some bands even send them to me, knowing how much I like to have the lyrics.
The EP started with a short instrumental preface, which was well done, and not too long or short. It gave me a tasty morsel for what may lay ahead. As the songs went the first song titled; ‘Brace For Impact’ hit me like a ton of bricks. The lyrics where easily relatable to many things and really touched a piece of me. I did shed a tear or two as I listened to the track, as it is a beautiful song and well done. Their strongest song vocally and instrumentally has got to be, ‘Enemy’, which is getting some radio play in South Carolina. I liked when they took a harder edge, and think they should have done it a bit more often than they did.
‘Chasing the Color of Truth’ was the other song that seemed to stick out to me. There are also two versions of ‘Makeshift’, the plugged version as I like to call it, and the acoustic. For my own preference I liked the acoustic version hands down, it had a lot of soul. I felt that Drew the bands Lead Singer really felt the heart of the song in the acoustic version more than the plugged version. The songwriting which is done by Paul Wright and Drew Cyphers is very strong, and very insightful. They are a good band, but they do need to find what direction they wish to go vocally, I had to listen to the EP a couple times to get a true sense of who they are, and where they want to possibly go. Livalie has great potential, and just needs to figure out if they want to go a bit harder like they did so brilliantly in ‘Enemy’ and be a truly Alternative Band, or if they want to be more of a mellow rock band.
The lyrics and musical arrangements are very good in quality, and Drew does have the potential to be a great front man; at this point, I am not sure if he is holding something back, or needs some simple training, or even something as simple as a better studio to record in. But like so many young artist in a band doing it on their own today. They are just trying to discover who they are and trying to find their place in the ever expanding music world.
I believe there is a place for Livalie , they have some really great tunes on this EP. They will find the right direction for themselves, and the right people to guide them on their path so that they can see their dreams come true. They have the goods, and with some fine tuning they will become the band they want to be. You can purchase their EP on their web page www.myspace.com/livalierocks or at I-tunes. But do check them out, they have something to offer everyone on their self produced freshman effort.
